LSAT 101 – Section 2 – Question 08

LSAT 101 - Section 2 - Question 08

December 1997

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT101 S2 Q08
+LR
Flaw or descriptive weakening +Flaw
A
5%
159
B
87%
168
C
1%
164
D
6%
164
E
1%
160
133
145
157
 +Medium 150.088 +SubsectionMedium

Sociologist: The claim that there is a large number of violent crimes in our society is false, for this claim is based upon the large number of stories in newspapers about violent crimes. But since violent crimes are very rare occurrences, newspapers are likely to print stories about them.

Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
The sociologist concludes that it is false that there is a large number of violent crimes. The sociologist supports this conclusion by proposing an alternative explanation for the large number of newspaper stories about violent crimes: because violent crimes are rare, newspapers are more likely to print stories about them when they happen.

Identify and Describe Flaw
This is a cookie-cutter “circular reasoning” flaw, where to support the conclusion, the argument uses a premise that already assumes the conclusion is true. Specifically, the sociologist claims as a premise that violent crime is rare, in order to provide support to the conclusion that violent crime is rare.

A
presupposes that most newspaper stories are about violent crime
The sociologist doesn’t make any claims about whether most newspaper stories are about violent crime, only that there are many newspaper stories about violent crime.
B
presupposes the truth of the conclusion it is attempting to establish
The argument presupposes the truth of violent crime being rare, using this claim as a premise to support the conclusion that violent crime is rare. The conclusion is already presupposed to be true through the premise, making this a circular argument.
C
assumes without warrant that the newspaper stories in question are not biased
The sociologist does not make any claim of whether the newspaper stories about violent crime are or aren’t biased. Bias just isn’t part of the sociologist’s argument.
D
mistakes a property of each member of a group taken as an individual for a property of the group taken as a whole
The properties of members of a group and that group as a whole are not being discussed, so this isn’t relevant to the sociologist’s argument.
E
uncritically draws an inference from what has been true in the past to what will be true in the future
The sociologist is not comparing the past to the future. The argument only deals with the current state of violent crime and newspaper articles about violent crime.

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LSAT PrepTest 101 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

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